Happy New Year Guys & Gals! Since it is New Year's Day, I want to share a rare piece of Goodyear ephemera. This is a two-piece cardboard advertisement that I found 25 years or so ago in a barn turned antique shop. It was up in the haymow with the two pieces facing each other & leaning on a wall...I could only see part of the bottom. I bought it on the spot because my brother was at that time, in management for quite a few NW Ohio Goodyear Tire stores, and I thought he'd love to have it. Of course he was quite surprised and hung it on his office wall in Toledo. He would have corporate people from Akron in his office and they'd admire it and tell him they've never see one like it and one person said that my brother could "donate it" to the Goodyear museum/archives...Not! It is in pretty decent shape for being 74 years old, and measures 36 1/2" wide x 49" tall. There is a die cut hole in between the baby's upheld fingers, where my brother put in an "orange" painted dowel rod to resemble the tot's crayon or piece of chalk. The year is 1937 as shown in the tire, and the many previous calendar years lay around the tire in a pile. This is a rare piece of ephemera not only because it is made of paper printed cardboard, but also because of the bare behind little tot...remembering that Coppertone had to phase out their little girl showing off her tan by way of a playful puppy! Nowadays these once sincere and unobjectionable images might be considered "inappropriate" to some.
In 1937...were Goodyear tires mostly sold through service stations? Has anyone out there, and Goodyear Tire related collectors, ever laid eyes on this same cardboard advertisement? I'm waiting to hear if there is an artist signature within the printing or not. Have fun in 2011!
1937 Goodyear Advertisement